Oscar Groomes from O’s Place Jazz Newsletter has reviewed The Tim Ray Trio’sWindows as follows:
“Pianist Tim Ray performs in a trio with Mark Walker (d) and John Lockwood (b) on Windows. It is his first trio release since his debutIdeas and Opinions over 20 years ago! Ray is influenced by Monk beyond “Monks Dream”. We also felt that groove on “DE-Train”. You can also hear impressions of Corea, Hancock, Jarrett, Tyner and Evans. There is a touch of ragtime blues in “I’ve Been to Memphis” and peaceful journeys on the title track and “So Tender” making this an enjoyable and well-rounded session.”
3.4 7:30p Cape Cod Cultural Center, 307 Old Main St., South Yarmouth, MA 02664, 508-394-7100 The Tim Ray Trio featuring John Lockwood – bass & Mark Walker – drums 3.28 7:30-10:30p The Sahara Club, 34 Bates St., Methuen, MA 01844, 978-683-9200 The Tim Ray Trio featuring John Lockwood – bass & Mark Walker – drums
Oscar from O’s Place Jazz Newsletter has reviewed Greg Murphy’s Summer Breeze as follows:
“This is an upbeat jovial set with pianist Greg Murphy leading the charge backed by bassist Eric Wheeler and Kush Abadey on drums. Malou Beauvoir provides vocals on “Sophisticated Lady” with a strong solo from trumpeter Josh Evans. She also sings the R&B infused “A Reason To Smile” with brass accompaniment by Jay Rodriguez (sax) and Corey Wilcox (tb) along with the classic title track. Evans mesmerizes us on “Fall” making Summer Breeze a memorable and well-balanced set.”
with Kent Hewitt on piano, Dave Zinno on bass, and Gary Johnson on drums
Saturday, February 25th at 8 pm
Tickets: $20
Click here or call 401-782-1018 for reservations and tickets
“I sleep a lot better knowing there are alto players like Greg! It was a joy to make music with him and he writes songs that are challenging.” – Phil Woods
It is one of life’s great blessings to have known, albeit briefly, the wonderful person Reggie Young. You can read about his accomplishments – they were many and significant, particularly to those he helped become stars and chart-toppers – wherever you get your music news. What stood out to me is how humble, considerate and thoughtful he was in person. At a small CD release party for his first CD under his own name, Forever Young, in his home town of Leipers Fork, TN, many of his longtime cohorts and friends paid tribute to a person they respected not just for his unusual musical abilities, but also for the friend they had come to know well and love.
Reggie will be missed by many as one who lived his life as it should be lived, without ego and bluster, with a focused commitment to the musical task at hand and also to respecting and helping those he came to know.
Our condolences go out to Reggie’s family. His warmth and spirit continue to guide us.
Neal Weiss, president
Whaling City Sound
left to right: Tom Evered, Neal Weiss, Jenny Young, Reggie Young
Sad to report the passing of legendary session guitarist and Whaling City artist Reggie Young. He was one of the most recorded guitarists in the sixties, seventies and eighties playing on numerous legendary hits by Elvis Presley, Dusty Springfield and more.
Young was a member of the country supergroup The Highwaymen w/ Kris Kristofferson, WillieNelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. He was also a founding member of the Bill Black Combo. In 1964, The Beatles requested the Combo open for them during their first U.S. tour and invited the group over to England for another month-long tour.
“The story of Reggie Young’s career is, in many ways, a miniature version of the story of Southern soul music.” – AllMusic
A compilation of his famous recordings “Session Guitar Star” is due out next week on Ace Records.
Reggie Young “Session Guitar Star” Ace CDHD1537 will be available in the UK and via importers here on January 25, 2019. Last year the UK based reissue label Ace released a 22 track collection of his finest session work here on Amazon.
He is the guitarist on Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” and “In the Ghetto,” Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man,” Willie Nelson’s “Always On My Mind,” Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” and Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away,” among so many other legendary songs. His name is Reggie Young.
Reggie is now featured on a brand new album by an artist making his debut as a bandleader. That artist is—wait for it—Reggie Young! At 79, after six decades of stellar appearances, backing megastars and superstars alike, and receiving accolades from names like Clapton and George Harrison, Reggie is at last responsible for an album of his own material, the aptly titled Forever Young.
Recorded primarily at La La Land Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Forever Young features seven instrumental tracks written and produced by Young. They showcase his unique and supremely soulful six-string sound. Not only that, the rest of the performers on the recording include mainstays of the Memphis, Nashville and Muscle Shoals eras of the ’60s and ’70s. Forever Young is excellent news for fans of tasty southern-style country-soul, and good news for Young, who finally gets to emerge from the shadows cast by some of the greatest performers in rock music history to stand on his own, at long last, in the spotlight.
Terry Gibbs will go live again! This coming Sunday at 1 pm pacific time, here on Facebook live. He’ll tell stories and answer questions from anybody who’s interested. He had a really great time answering all the questions that were asked.
At age 92 years old, vibraphonist Terry Gibbs was still a musical force when he recorded 92 Years Young Jammin’ at the Gibbs House (Whaling City Sound, 2017). His son, drummer Gerry Gibbs, paid homage to him with Songs from My Father (Whaling City Sound, 2021) with the Thrasher Dream Trio band. As for this recording for his father, Gerry Gibbs says, “Recording this record with my Pops will always be so memorable because it will be his last work.” Accordingly, at the ripe age of 98 years old, Terry Gibbs has released the last album of his storied career and life with The Terry Gibbs Songbook, recorded and performed by the Terry Gibbs Legacy Band featuring Gerry and an all-star cast of players including saxophonist Scott Hamilton and vocalist Danny Bacher, who fit the bill to the tee.
Having an outstanding reed section to work with, the challenge became how to feature each player by giving them proper solo space on each track. The Brazilian flavored opener, “Let’s Go To Rio,” features Ranier on the first solo with Allen and Hamilton on two choruses of eight bars each. The following “Those Eyes, Those Lips, That Nose, That Face, That Girl,” has Allen and Hamilton supporting Bacher on vocals.
One beautiful ballad played to the heart is the gorgeous “I Was Loved,” with Hamilton doing the love solos all by himself as the vocalist displays his warmth and soul, letting it all hang out. The tempo changes dramatically on the perky “Now’s The Time To Groove,” a lively swinging number that has the shoulders moving and the fingers snapping. This is the only piece that features Terry Gibbs on vocals, trading words with Bacher on a cheery, playful piece of music.
There are other memorable songs on this session and one for sure is the melodic “The House That Might Have Been,” featuring Hamilton again on some delicious solo moments. Allen takes center stage on the slow ballad of “Nina.” The boisterous and swinging “I Can Hardly Wait for Saturday Night” has Allen and Hamilton featured on multiple four-bar solos in one of the gyrating pieces of the session.
Two of the outstanding tunes of the album are “And That’s Why They Call It The Blues,” and the swinging “Stay With Me Tonight” which features solos from Ranier, Allen and Hamilton. The Terry Gibbs Songbook is the perfect Swan Song, a final musical gesture from an unforgettable jazz legend whose music will surely live on.
Mondays With Morgan is a column in LondonJazz News written by Morgan Enos, a music journalist based in Hackensack, New Jersey. Therein, he dives deep into the jazz that moves him – his main focus being the scene in nearby New York City.
This week, Enos spoke with the legendary vibraphonist Terry Gibbs, active since the 1940s; to trace his development is to tell the story of a large swath of jazz history.
Terry Gibbs, who turns 99 next October 13, has had quite a remarkable career. One of the greatest vibraphonists of all time, Gibbs was a professional by the age of 12 (back in 1936). He became famous as a member of Woody Herman’s Second Herd, worked with Buddy Rich, Chubby Jackson and the Benny Goodman Sextet, mastered bebop, and was a bandleader throughout much of his career. Gibbs led his orchestra, The Dream Band, during the late 1950s and early ‘60s, headed the regular group on the Steve Allen Show in the 1960s, and had a quintet with clarinetist Buddy DeFranco. His memoirs, Good Vibes, is both quite informative and often hilarious. Gibbs was active into his early nineties before deciding to retire.
The Terry Gibbs Songbook is a special final musical project in Gibbs’ career. There is one major error in the liner notes that needs to be corrected. It is stated that because Gibbs helps out with the singing and plays some two-handed piano on the humorous and nostalgic “Now’s The Time To Groove,” he is the first musician to record in eight decades. Actually Benny Carter recorded in nine; however Terry Gibbs still has the record. In addition to recording commercially in nine decades (starting in 1946), if one counts a radio show on which Gibbs in the 1930s played some classical music (tapes still exist and briefly appeared on You Tube), he is the only musician ever to have recorded in ten decades!
While Gibbs occasionally wrote songs that he recorded as instrumentals through the years, this project is a bit different. 15 of the great vibraphonist’s compositions have been given lyrics and are sung by Danny Bacher, a fine jazz vocalist who could have fit in well with jazz groups in the 1950s. Eight of the numbers have words by Michael Dees while the other collaborators were lyricists Arthur Hamilton, Bobby Troup, Steve Allen, and Jerry Gladstone with two of the songs having lyrics by Gibbs himself.
Terry Gibbs’ music has always swung and this set is certainly no exception. He gathered together pianist Tom Ranier (also heard a bit on tenor), bassist Mike Gurrola, and his son drummer Gerry Gibbs, and was able to easily talk the two great swing tenors Scott Hamilton and Harry Allen into joining the group. While each song has a Bacher vocal, there is a lot of solo space for the tenors and Ranier. The tunes range from love songs (including the touching “I Was Loved”) and wistful memories of his life to plenty of joyful swing. Such titles as “I Can Hardly Wait For Saturday Night,” “Play And Sing,” “And That’s Why They Call It The Blues,” “Stay With Me Tonight” (which during its closing part includes some Terry Gibbs vibes from decades ago), and the jazz waltz “Say Goodbye” are among the many rewarding songs on this set that could become standards in the future if heard by enough singers and instrumentalists.
Terry Gibbs has said on numerous occasions that this is his last recording. Hopefully when he turns 100, he will change his mind and do this again! In the meantime, be sure to pick up a copy of The Terry Gibbs Songbook which is available from www.whalingcitysound.com and www.amazon.com.
“Terry Gibbs Returns with Homemade Recording” interview by Kirk Silsbee in July 2017 DOWNBEAT:
“IN 2015, VETERAN VIBRAPHONIST TERRY Gibbs decided to put his mallets away for good, leaving the family musical legacy to his son, drummer Gerry Gibbs. But a funny thing happened on the way to retirement: Terry got the itch and asked Gerry to bring some players to his house for an informal jam. Gerry’s wife posted a YouTube video of the get-together, which went viral a few days later. The group then decided to have a session with the tape rolling, and the result is an album Terry never thought he’d make—92 Years Young: Jammin’ At The Gibbs House (Whaling City Sound). The loquacious Terry Gibbs was happy to talk to DownBeat about the unique circumstances behind this project and reflect on his storied career.”
Start your week with the heartfelt lyrics and soulful melodies of Mary Ann Rossoni's "Measure My Love" from her album #TimberAndNails. 💕🛠️ This track is a tender exploration of love, devotion, and how we express what truly matters. 🎸🎤
Music industry consultant and publicist Ginny Shea has garnered international exposure for her clients through radio and video promotion, print media, and her vast industry network.
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Music industry consultant and publicist Ginny Shea has garnered international exposure for her clients through radio and video promotion, print media, and her vast industry network.
